customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

summary

updatedDate

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Reuters

North Korea has sent about 500 balloons laden with trash into South Korea’s air space over the past 24 hours, officials in the South said on Thursday, disrupting flights and igniting a fire on the roof of a residential building.
The balloons are part of an ongoing propaganda campaign by Pyongyang against North Korean defectors and activists in the South, who regularly send balloons carrying items such as anti-Pyongyang leaflets medicine, money and USB sticks loaded with K-pop videos and dramas.
A suspected balloon suspended take-offs and landings at Seoul’s Gimpo Airport on Wednesday evening for two hours, an official at the Korea Airports Corporation said.
Balloons have affected traffic at South Korea’s main international airport, Incheon, several times in recent weeks.

In Gyeonggi, a province near Seoul, a balloon caught fire on top of a residential building. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, an official at the Gyeonggi Northern Fire and Disaster Headquarters said.
South Korea’s military said some trash balloons were equipped with timed poppers that could cause fires.
“A timer is attached to the trash balloons, which has the effect of popping the balloons and spreading the trash after a certain period of time has passed,” Lee Sung-jun, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a briefing.
Lee said 480 balloons had landed mostly carrying paper and plastic trash in South Korea as of Thursday.
On Wednesday, North Korean balloons had landed in the vicinity of the heavily guarded presidential office in Seoul.


In South Korea, claims of impending martial law inflame political ‘war of attrition’

South Korea’s military intelligence faces overhaul after classified leaks to North

Critics blast Seoul’s ‘submissive’ Tokyo ties as Kishida seeks Yoon talks before exit

South Korea’s unification plan ignores domestic and regional realities

Korean peninsula

North Korea trash balloons disrupt flights in Seoul, cause rooftop fire

A balloon carrying garbage being flown from the North Korean border town of Kaepung toward the South. Photo: dpa

South Korean officials clean up the contents of a trash-carrying balloon on a street in Seoul. Photo: AFP

North Korea flies more trash balloons after Seoul resumes propaganda broadcasts

A balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in Incheon, South Korea, on June 10. Photo: AP

Loudspeakers set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea in 2018. South Korea said on Friday it has restarted anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the border. Photo: AP

North Korea launches more trash-filled balloons toward South Korea: Seoul military

A balloon, presumably sent by North Korea, is seen in a paddy field in South Korea. Seoul says North Korea has launched balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on July 18. Photo: AP

Kim Jong-un’s sister issues ‘gruesome’ threat to South Korea over balloons

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi in 2019. Photo: AP

A sample leaflet containing a US dollar bill and USB-drives of K-pop that a North Korean defector regularly floats via propaganda balloons into his homeland. Photo: AFP

South Korean soldiers check a balloon carrying garbage, presumably sent by North Korea, found in Seoul last month. Photo: Joint Chiefs of Staff/Handout via EPA-EFE

News

Asia

East Asia

North Korean balloon blitz is part of a show of anger at South Korea for measures at the border


North Korea has sent about 500 balloons laden with trash into South Korea’s air space over the past 24 hours, officials in the South said.


South Korea

North Korea